24 some cardboard for walls and I'll watch the mouse." Judy laid the mouse gently on her bed. In her father's room, she slipped cardboards out of a few shirts that had been left in a bureau drawer. She found an odd wool sock, a torn handkerchief, and a square china ashtray, and carried these back into her room. "Look," she said, holding out the ashtray. "For its bed. You put in the card- board and I'll fix its bed. It's probably tired." I t took them almost an hour to fix the house. In the living room was a couch made of part of a safety-match box, a table made of an empty spool, and a chair of folded cardboard; the dining-room table was the top of the match box covered with a bit torn off the handkerchief, while a small puff stool had been made from the rest of the handkerchief; the ash- tray was lined with soft wool for a bed and covered with a piece of silk ribbon. "We'll have to buy a little doll's bu- reau," Judy said. "For its clothes when we make them." "Let's put him in bed while we heat his milk, and then we can move him into the dining room while he eats it." "I got the cardboard, so you get the milk," Judy said. By the time Fuffy came back with the warm milk in a whiskey glass, Judy had made a sign to hang on the door of her room. "Mouse Sanctuary," the sign read, and underneath these let- ters, which were printed in red crayon, she had written the warning, "Quiet Please! Mouse Sleeping." They moved the mouse to its soft, padded stool, and Judy dipped her fin- ger in the milk and held it close to the mouse. The tiny animal lay still, its eyes closed. Fuffy rubbed some milk around its mouth, and they waited breathlessly to see if it would reach out with its tongue. "What shall we name It?" Judy asked. Fuffy shut her eyes and frowned. "Well, it's a mouse, and it's gray and pink," she said. "And it's perfectly beautiful," Judy said. "How do you think Pink Beauty would be?" "I think it would be swell! Pink Beauty! Here, Pink Beauty! Lie down, Pink Beauty! I shouldn't be surprised if he got to be famous." "Oh, goodness! I shouldn't either! Just think what fun it will be when he gets to know us. I had a kitten that got to know me in a few days. He really 1 \ ; - , ,.I '\ ':. ,t'" \i-: ... . ,,:," I ,:, :''',''', .', .." ", / ",<" . ",' i ":> 't':":):rt, 11'; "''> f to: ':.:',.: t' tf.:, " P''' r ,ii ( }; ,i: \:::; , ,1' "'" ':';, . \ji: t; , .""".,., , - , . - _u -- .......- . did! He almost came when I called him. That is, he would turn around and look " at me. "Oh, Pink Beauty will get to know us, all right." Fuffy's voice was con- fident. "I'm going to teach him to eat out of a spoon." "I'm going to teach him to jump through a little hoop." "I saw a mouse that danced, once. It was a white mouse, and I saw him on Fourteen th Street. He danced and told fortunes. " "Why," Judy said, "they can even teach fleas tricks. They can walk a tight- rope and climb ladders. I'm going to teach Pink Beauty to walk a tightrope." They leaned over the box. Pink Beauty lay on the stool, his small mouth wet with milk. He lay very still, and his legs were stretched stiffly out. "Fuffy!" Judy cried. "He looks funny ! Touch him ! You touch him!" Fuffy rested her finger gently on one of the small legs. "He feels funny," she . d " D h . k " sal. 0 you t In ... They looked at one another in hor- ror. Then Judy picked up the stool and shook the mouse gently into her hand. "It doesn't move," she said. "Pink Beauty doesn't move at all." She got up, holding the mouse in her hand, and walked over toward the window. She turned her head away so that Fuffy could not see her tears. "You wait here," she said. "I'm going to ask my mother." When Judy had left the room, Fuffy picked up the carton that had been Pink Beauty's house and put it away in the closet. Then, hearing Judy's step once more on the stairs, she walked to the door and waited. Judy still held the mouse in her hand. "Mom says that he was too little to live," she said. She opened her bureau drawer and searched through the few things she had left behind when she had packed at the end of last summ r until 2.. . ,. !!..,;." :.... l ,,;it t .: j? t l' I :;:,1 !:, 1:/t\J t , ;1.1f ,. '.:: ::::=:"-: :_-:: . , ,:;.<' :: . " ' f:;:: ': . " . "':i ' ; ' ::""":"'>1ì:r ..i' '", ),;":' "' 'V: I '" ; .,:\ ..::: t,:..:::) : ') t:' ,x, " \ { :' ' :: , '" ' : "','\:' . ",::: :d $% ;:;;t) \i,,:':j: ( ' ,.::. ' (p . she found a white imitation-leather box lined with satin. "My bracelet came in this," she said. She laid Pink Beauty on the white satin and closed the box. "Are you going to bury him?" F uffy asked. " Of " course. They walked slowly down the stairs and out of the house. Judy led the way across the lawn to a small birch tree that grew close to the white picket fence. "We can dig a place with a stick," she said. When the hole was deep enough, she lined it with grass and leaves and pressed the white box into it. "} think we should kneel and say the Lord's Prayer," she said. "We don't have to do it out loud." They knelt on the grass, their lips moving, and then Judy gathered a handful of earth and covered the box, She picked pink buds from the rambler roses and scattered them on the small mound. "Let's look for a good stone. r\ nice, flat one," Fuffy said. J UDY and Fuffy walked through the gate out to the road, their eyes seri- ous and their faces solemn. From down the hill came a sound of wheels on gravel, and around the curve rode a boy on a bicycle. He came to a stop beside the two little girls. "Hi, there, Judy," he . d " I b . h " crle. saw you go y In t e car. Judy put out her hand and caught hold of the handlebars of the bike. "Oh, hello, Donald," she said. "This is Fuffy Adams, a friend of mine who's visiting me. This is Donald Wade, the boy I was telling you about. He made the money to buy this bike." "Oh," Fuffy said. She walked slowly around the bicycle, admiring it. "Can I ride it down the hill? " "Sureo" He stood aside and held the bike steady while Fuffy climbed on. "I'll bring it right back!" she called